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Our Past, Present and Future

We know there have been times when we’ve fallen short, and we understand the frustration this has caused for the customers and communities we serve. This is an open and honest look at where Southern Water has been and how we’re moving forward. We’ve begun putting things right, but we recognise there’s lots more to do.

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Owning our past, delivering a different future

It’s no secret that the water industry is going through a period of profound challenge and change, with customers understandingly questioning our environmental performance, especially when it comes to protecting the rivers and coastlines communities depend on.
 
All UK water companies are facing significant challenges, including managing ageing infrastructure, increasing environmental pressures, and the realities of serving a growing population.
 
Southern Water is no exception and we don’t always get it right. We’ve had to confront where we've fallen short, be more open about the problems we’ve encountered, and take greater responsibility for putting things right.
 
We’ve been working hard to respond with real action, not just words. Step by step, we’ve been tackling challenges head-on, and making changes that are starting to show early but meaningful signs of improvement. We know this progress is only the beginning, and we are under no illusion about the scale of the work still ahead.
 
Over the next 5 years, we’ll invest around £8.5 billion on the things you’ve told us matter most - improving services and the reliability of supplies, while investing more than ever to protect and restore the environment. The future of water must be cleaner, greener, and more resilient, and we know we have a significant responsibility in making that a reality.
 
We also understand that water is essential - to everyone's homes, our families, and our daily lives. That responsibility guides every decision we make. We know trust isn’t rebuilt through statements; it’s earned through consistent, visible progress. We won’t pretend that everything is fixed, because it isn’t. But each of us at Southern Water is committed to doing the hard work, being transparent about progress, and improving services for customers.

Lawrence Gosden
CEO, Southern Water

Lawrence Gosden CEO Southern Water

Before privatisation

Before privatisation, the water industry was in far worse shape than many people remember. Decades of underinvestment meant poor drinking water quality, polluted rivers, and beaches badly affected by sewage. By the late 1980s, ageing infrastructure and financial constraints left public water authorities struggling to fund even basic upgrades, creating a system that was inefficient and damaged the environment. Far from being a golden era, it was a time when the service was failing communities and the environment. This is what  prompted the major reforms that followed.

1989 – Privatisation

When the water industry was privatised in 1989, one of the key drivers was the urgent need to clean up rivers and bathing waters, which had suffered from decades of underinvestment in public wastewater infrastructure. Before privatisation, river health was poor and less than a third of beaches met environmental standards. Private capital was needed to meet tougher EU and UK water quality regulations, including modernising wastewater treatment works and reducing sewage discharges. Following privatisation, nearly £160 billion of private investment was injected into the industry, which helped transform environmental performance. The number of beaches rated 'excellent' doubled from one third before privatisation to two thirds.

1989-2010 - Investing in a cleaner future

From 1989 to 2010, we invested heavily in wastewater treatment sites to meet the strict standards designed to protect rivers, seas and bathing waters. Each year, around 460 million cubic metres of wastewater passed through our sewer network, and we treated 93% of it to help safeguard the environment. This work needed an average annual investment of £314 million. Between 2010 and 2017, we continued improving bathing water quality: the number of beaches rated ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ rose from 81% to 94%. These improvements were driven by upgrades to treatment works, better monitoring, and close collaboration with environmental partners — all aimed at protecting public health, enhancing the natural environment and ensuring cleaner, safer water for everyone.

Southern Water worker on site

2010 - 2019 – Taking ownership of our mistakes

Between 2010 and 2015, Southern Water misreported performance data about the operation and compliance of several wastewater treatment works. These failures became the focus of major regulatory investigations, which led to substantial penalties including a £126 million fine from Ofwat in 2019 and a £90 million fine from the Environment Agency in 2021 for widespread pollution offences, including thousands of illegal sewage discharges during that period. 

Over this period we fell far short of the standards expected of us. When the full extent of what went wrong became clear, we removed wastewater related incentives from executive bonus schemes, returned £123 million to customers, and accepted Ofwat’s £3 million fine.

The Environment Agency’s later £120 million fine highlighted further historic failures and exposed serious weaknesses in our systems and reporting. These findings were a turning point for Southern Water. Ever since, we’ve been working to fix what went wrong - overhauling processes, strengthening controls, and investing heavily in improvements to prevent anything like this from happening again.

2021 - Refinancing the business

Lawrence Gosden joined Southern Water in May 2020 and set about refinancing the business. In 2021, Macquarie Asset Management acquired a majority stake in the company and injected more than £1 billion in new equity to stabilise the business and shift it onto a more sustainable financial footing. This recapitalisation has since grown to more than £2.5 billion, with no dividends taken. The investment unlocked a major transformation programme - including upgrades to pipes, pumping stations and wastewater treatment works in the first four years. It marked a clear turning point - a move from managing historic failures to rebuilding the company through sustained, long term investment and stronger oversight. Since taking the helm Lawrence has also established a new leadership team to help drive the company’s transformation and strengthen its operational and environmental performance.

Southern Water worker on site
Southern Water employees working with the community in a garden

2023 - 2025 - Turning our plan into action

In April 2023, we launched an ambitious Turnaround Plan to deliver a step change in performance by 2025. Since then, we’ve completed 103 improvement projects at our largest water supply works, investing £150 million to make supplies more reliable. Leakage is down nearly 10%, and unplanned outages continue to fall.

To protect local rivers and seas, we opened a 24/7 Control Centre using real time data from 32,000 digital monitors in sewers to cut issues and fix them more quickly. We’ve invested £23 million in improving the wastewater network - including 3,500 pumping stations - helping reduce pollutions by a quarter since 2023 and by nearly 40% since 2020. Our Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force has also beaten its targets for Storm Overflow Reductions.

To help customers, we’ve auto enrolled 18,000 people onto support tariffs, expanded our Priority Services Register to 300,000 customers, and reached more than 32,492 young people through our education programme. 

Our latest Pollution Incident Reduction Plan

2026 - Delivering on our commitments

Ofwat has confirmed that we’ve completed all the actions required under the Section 19 undertakings agreed in 2019, following the wastewater sampling investigation in which we repaid £123 million to customers and received a £3 million fine. All 2019 actions have been completed, resulting in stronger compliance and improved reporting across the organisation. This has been supported by a full review of culture, systems, and processes, alongside £46 million of shareholder funded improvements and a further £13.5 million invested following the wider industry review.

Southern Water wastewater site

2025 - 2030 - Investing in a future that matters

The need for change has never felt more important. The UK is now drier per capita than Namibia, and nature has declined by 19% since 1970 — including the loss of half our wildflowers and nearly 40% of reptiles and amphibians. These stark figures underline just how critical our role is in protecting the South’s water sources and restoring the natural environment. 

That’s why our current business plan is the largest investment we have ever made in your water and wastewater services, shaped by over 25,000 customers who told us what matters most: reliable drinking water, stronger environmental protection, and cleaner rivers and seas. In response, we’re investing around £8.5 billion over the next five years — including £6.1 billion in major infrastructure and nature based projects to support growing communities, improve water quality along 1,000 km of river, upgrade more than 170 storm overflows, and fundamentally change how we source, store, treat and supply water. We’re also developing new water sources to secure future supplies, including new reservoirs and water recycling plants.  

We know this level of investment means bills have had to rise, so we’re committed to transparency - showing exactly how every pound is being used to deliver real improvements for your community and the environment.

Our current business plan

A closing message from our CEO

I want to acknowledge the thousands of people across Southern Water who are driving this change every day. Their hard work, professionalism and commitment - often in tough conditions and under intense scrutiny - are at the heart of our turnaround. They know how much more there is to do, and they are determined to deliver it.

And to our customers: thank you for your patience, your challenge and your honesty. Please keep holding us to the standards you expect. Your feedback shapes our decisions, strengthens our resolve and keeps us focused on what matters most - delivering the reliable services and environmental protection that every community deserves.

We also know we can’t do this alone. Reducing pollution, protecting precious water resources and managing climate change all rely on partnership - with communities, with local organisations and with every household that plays a part in using water wisely. Working together, we can make the progress our region needs.

Lawrence Gosden CEO Southern Water

How we compare to the rest of the world?

Water supplies around the world are under increasing pressure. Climate change, population growth, and pollution are making it harder for many countries to keep taps flowing. Global experts warn that by 2030; there may be far less freshwater available than people need.

Many people are now looking to the UK as an example of how long‑term investment can improve water services. One of our biggest success stories is drinking water quality. The UK now ranks among the very best in the world, achieving a top score on the Environmental Performance Index – alongside countries like Switzerland and Germany. Wastewater treatment has also seen major progress, with 99.8% now treated to high standards.